


The Quieting

by tmo



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Apocalypse, Babysitting, Gen, Naruto AU Week 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29290380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmo/pseuds/tmo
Summary: They had gone out to see a movie and were heading home.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Umino Iruka
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13
Collections: Naruto AU Week 2021





	The Quieting

**Author's Note:**

> just a little idea I had when the power went out

It had begun in the dead of night. 

Iruka had been babysitting his cousin's kid and they'd brought the other neighbourhood kids to the movies.

They were just turning off the highway when the lights went out. While the houses being dark were normal for the middle of the night, the streetlights were supposed to be on. Only his headlights lit their path.

One or two street lights being down wouldn’t have been suspicious. Even a whole neighbourhood would have made Iruka simply wonder if there was a power outage but this was more than a little outage. Driving into a new neighbourhood, Iruka's whole body shivered at the emptiness, the way the whole street seemed to be swallowed up by nothingness. The only light came from the reflections of their headlights in the windows and on the painted lines of the road. 

"Iruka?" Sakura asked uneasily.

"Looks like there's a power outage," Iruka simply said, not wanting to worry them.

They were hard to fool, the shifting in the backseat settling down as they strained to look out the windows for any signs of light.

There wasn’t any to find though. There wasn’t even the light from candles inside houses or flashlights. 

Once they finally pulled on the kids’ street, the backseat went completely silent as they all came upon the dark house that had been alit only hours before. The porch lights were dark. The rooms they’d left lit up were dark. Even the little solar-powered lights in the garden out front were dark.

Iruka almost didn’t want to get out of the car and the kids felt the same once they parked and cut the engine. For a moment, they looked up at the house and watched, waited, listened. 

Iruka could feel they were scared and he was too but he was in charge of them. He just had to get them inside and safe and then they could figure things out after. 

Turning back to them, he shifted to face them fully. As calmly as he could, he explained to them, “So, we’re going to go inside.”

As Sakura started shaking her head in fear, the boys seized in fear but Iruka kept going. “We’ll walk together and once we’re inside, I’ll check the house to see if I can find Minato and Kushina, okay?”

Naruto’s eyes went wide as he realized what Iruka was saying but before he could worry too much, Iruka smiled and assured, “I bet they just went over to the neighbours. Probably to find batteries.”

“But why are all the lights out?” Naruto demanded.

Sasuke, always the observant one, saw Sakura and Naruto’s panic and quickly said, “That’s what happens when the power goes out, idiot.”

Naruto sputtered to retort but Iruka took up the torch again. “Okay, come on, let’s get inside.”

Before he could worry about opening his door, he stepped out into the night air. Something struck him as even odder than any normal power outage. It wasn’t until he and the kids shut their doors and the echo passed that he found what was wrong. 

This was a well-off, middle-class neighbourhood on a hill. The winters here were harsh and the powerlines were still above ground unlike the other neighbourhoods nearby. Powerful winds and heavy snow could knock out the power easily. That was why Iruka hadn’t been super uneasy until now. 

Now, he could hear how empty the air was. There wasn’t a single sound other than the kid’s shoes on the drive. 

There wasn’t even the sound of generators, the normal background music of power outages. 

“Come,” Iruka quickly ordered, hurrying around the car to the front steps and the kids jolted to follow. Their steps were so loud hopping after Iruka that he worried someone would hear. Even turning in the lock sounded like a bell ringing.

Yanking the door open, he ushered the kids into the entryway and quickly locked the door behind them.

Before Iruka could relax, he found that they weren’t yet in the clear as the kids clung to his legs.

Lit by the moon, the house was otherwise dark.

Dark and quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> I literally had no idea how to tag this holy moly  
> Was going to add more, add Kakashi at some point but I wanted to condense it down, leave people hanging~  
> Hope you guys enjoyed, sticking to small pieces for this event since I'm doing drabbles the KakaIru Rocks Valentine's Week too!


End file.
